I collect a lot of stuff, and it’s starting to pile up. When my mom lived in Tulare she was five minutes away from my house. I visited her almost every day. We are very close so we did a lot together. My mom has renal failure so she is on permanent dialysis and is in and out of the hospital. I would stay the night with her when she wasn’t feeling good, and sometimes it got really bad and I had to call 911. She gets scared sometimes when she’s in the hospital that she may not make it back home. It was very important to my mom to make sure that each of us kids had something passed down from her. Being that my mom is not in good health I brought home everything she gave me. On top of that she said she wanted one last adventure, so she moved to Arkansas and lives with my sister on Hamilton Lake. Before her move, she gave me so much of her stuff. I don’t know what to keep and what to get rid of.
My mom passed down to me some really beautiful pieces of furniture that I am keeping: a beautifully carved antique chest it had about 200 brand new Beanie Babies packed inside, along with 3 boxes full of Beanie Babies. In a way it makes me feel special because I know she loved collecting them and they were, at the time, her pride and joy. Now I have them all. I thought about donating a bunch to Valley Childrens Hospital but I think I’ll hold on to them for now. I’m sure I’ll Know when it’s time to depart with them. She also gave me two tall file cabinets and a nice buffet. But a lot of it was her keepsake, and I really don’t want it but I can’t get rid of it. I feel guilty. For instance the clothes she wore after her wedding, those have really had no purpose in my house. She gave me Christmas decorations that were my Grandmas. I have more than enough of my own. There was so much more and it all came in about 10 boxes and a couple of trips leaving her house with a loaded car. I need help because everything I go through has
Cited: Humes, Edward, Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair With Trash, New York: Avery, 2012 print